Celebrating Hampshire Historians

Shore, Thomas William

5 April 1840 -15 January 1905

Thomas Shore is no stranger to the Hampshire Field Club, which he founded with two others in 1885. He was the son of an architect, born in Wantage, and at some time acquired a Department of Science and Art Certificate, described as a ‘lowly qualification’. Clearly a late developer, after working as a schoolmaster in Gloucestershire, where he married, he moved to Burnley or thereabouts as a secretary of the East Lancashire Union of Institutions, which promoted science teaching. In 1873 at the age of 33 he came to the Hartley Institution, Southampton, which had been founded in 1862 and was the forerunner of the University. He was appointed curator cum librarian, but soon became in effect its principal. For a person with no traditional education, it was a perfect launch-pad for a career as geologist, antiquarian, author, teacher and much else.  He retired in 1896 to Balham, where he founded the Balham Antiquarian Society, and also acted as secretary of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society.

Sources

• TW Shore Memorial Volume, Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club, 1911

• http://sotonopedia.wikidot.com/page-browse:shore-thomas-william

Portrait

Contribution to county’s history

It is impossible here to do justice to the enormous contribution that Shore made to the history of the county, starting what in effect was the first serious attempt to tackle a huge undertaking.  The Memorial Volume of 1911 covers many a huge range of places and topics that he studied and later, in 1892, assembled in his History of Hampshire, including the Isle of Wight (still available in reprints). He acknowledged the scale of the task, commenting that ‘owing to the increase of historical knowledge, the time for attempting to write...one comprehensive work, may have passed away’. Certainly, the VCH which followed required the work of many. He also played a major role in settling the Cope Collection in a safe academic environment.  

Relevant published works

• TW Shore Memorial Volume, Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club, 1911


• Hicks, M, Hampshire and Isle of Wight. In: Currie CRJ and Lewis, CP, eds., A Guide to County Histories, 1997, pp. 165-175

Critical Comments

As someone who was involved in his early years with the teaching of science, and always had a major interest in geology, he brought to the subject of history a very different approach to many others, drenched as they were in the Classics and traditional styles of historical teaching and research.

Other Comments

Probably the single most important historian of the county and very much under-acknowledged.

Contributor

Barry Shurlock, 19 October 2021

Key Words

Hampshire Field Club, pioneer historian, antiquarian, geology

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